NFTF - Building Partnership Capacity through Train, Advise, and Assist - Insights from BG Jackson, Commander, 1SFAB

The 1SFAB supported RSM and OFS with the Army’s first unit dedicated to training, advising, assisting, accompanying and enabling (A3E) conventional foreign security force partners from February to November 2018. The 1SFAB had a positive impact on NATO and U.S. strategic initiatives in Afghanistan by advising Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) at tactical levels of command that had not been consistently and directly advised since 2015. 1SFAB regularly advised kandaks, brigades, corps headquarters, regional military training centers, and the Capital Division responsible for securing Kabul. 1SFAB’s six battalions advised Afghan partners in every Afghan National Army (ANA) corps and each of RSM’s regional Train, Advise and Assist Commands (TAACs). The brigade also advised Afghan National Police (ANP) and Afghan Special Security Forces (ASSF) units.